1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printer that performs the purge operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional inkjet printer for ejecting ink from an inkjet head having a group of inkjet nozzles to form an image on a sheet of paper, any inkjet nozzles may be clogged due to ink left away to increase the viscosity of the ink or air bubbles or dust adhering to an inner wall face of an ink flow passage.
Thus, there has been known an inkjet printer that performs an operation for discharging ink at a high pressure from the inkjet nozzles (a so-called purge operation) to recover and maintain an ink discharge condition in the inkjet nozzles.
For example, an inkjet printer performs the purge operation in which ink within the inkjet nozzles is discharged together with air bubbles and dust by producing a large negative pressure using a pump connected to a suction cap and sucking through the suction cap in a state where the suction cap is contacted with a nozzle face to which a group of nozzles of the inkjet head are opened (e.g., refer to JP-A-2001-310459).
Besides, another inkjet printer performs the purge operation in which the ink is discharged from the inkjet nozzles by pressurizing ink supplied to the inkjet nozzles using the pump and supplying the ink at a high pressure to the inkjet nozzles.